The sacrifice of Iphigenia or Polyxena: the victim is about to have her throat cut and her blood caught in a bowl when a god with a drawn sword appears. Etching by G. de Lairesse.

Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon, whose sacrifice was demanded by Artemis. Polyxena was the daughter of King Priam of Troy: the ghost of Achilles demanded that she be sacrificed on his tomb